


Counting Rings

by orphan_account



Category: Polygon/McElroy Vlogs & Podcasts RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern with Magic, Anxiety, Established Relationship, Fluff and Angst, Gift Fic, M/M, Post-Canon, by that i mean like ten years after segs' fic, death mention, like no one dies but Brian is Worried
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-15
Updated: 2019-08-15
Packaged: 2020-09-01 03:08:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,533
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20251171
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Brian is acutely aware that he is, in fact, not human. And he was warned against dating a human simply because he would live on after them. So when Pat’s beard starts to go fully grey, Brian maybe worries a lot.





	Counting Rings

**Author's Note:**

  * For [segmentcalled](https://archiveofourown.org/users/segmentcalled/gifts).
  * Inspired by [as the crow flies](https://archiveofourown.org/works/19360285) by [segmentcalled](https://archiveofourown.org/users/segmentcalled/pseuds/segmentcalled). 

> So this is for one of my favorite authors out of one of their beautiful worlds, and if you haven't read the original fic, uhhhh go do dat
> 
> I am of course taking liberties with their world. And sorry about clogging up the tag, school's starting for me next week, so I'll be functionally dead via algebra, the old bitch, fuck algebra.

Brian doesn’t sleep. Not exactly. He just sort of…trances, usually. When he’s in his tree, he lets himself disappear for a few hours and soak in the life he missed out on all day. When he’s at Pat’s he crawls into bed with him and lets himself be held and stares up at the ceiling and counts the breaths his beautiful little human lets out. 

Brian is acutely aware that he is, in fact, not human. And he was warned against dating a human simply because he would live on after them. His mom is over one hundred, Laura’s reaching her seventies. Brian was “born” a good twenty or so years before Pat was even conceived, he just looks half his age. That’s magic, or something like it (Laura has always been the magic person, Patrick has always been the human person, and Brian has always been in-between with a focus on chipmunks). 

So when Pat’s beard starts to go fully grey, Brian maybe worries a lot. Because literally none of his friends are human and he doesn’t know how long they really live, his textbooks just always said somewhere up in the eighties range, and that’s so _young_. So young, and Brian’s sure he’s going to die if Pat dies. Because, okay, so they’ve only been together a couple years. But when he falls, he falls _hard_. 

Humans visibly age. Pat’s laugh lines get more defined. His beard starts to turn, and so does his hair, and he’s only in his late thirties. He has to be dying, he has to be, and Brian’s college textbooks were wrong because Pat’s getting older quicker than any other human Brian’s met (which, granted, is only Allegra and Thomas and the other New York People he still needs to go back and see once Laura lets him, bless and curse her).

As dryads get older, they stay in their trees longer and longer. Brian hasn’t seen his grandma since ‘87. So, by that logic, Pat should be in his human form longer and longer with age (magic takes up so much energy, after all, even if Pat’s said multiple times that going bird is maybe the easiest thing in the world to him by this point and takes as much energy to do as blinking). But he doesn’t, is the thing. He still spends a couple nights a week as a crow in the nest Brian’s built for him in his tree, still perches on Brian’s shoulder late at night when they really shouldn’t be out walking but still are anyway, still refuses to walk to and from town because he’s a lazy asshole (but Brian still loves him anyway). 

So Brian stays at Pat’s more often. Tries to move in fully even though he really does need to stay in his tree once every other week so he doesn’t, like, wither away. Manages to have an actual closet full of clothes that he doesn’t have to magically store in his tree that Pat steals, like, all of the time (the first time Brian catches him in one of his button-ups, he maybe cries and then kisses him senseless). Leaves his meds in the bathroom, keeps Nutter Butters in the cupboard, chills in the background during Pat’s streams and cheerfully waves when chat says hi and only sometimes echoes the piss noise along with his beautifully-disgusting boyfriend. 

Pat turns forty and keeps an inhaler in the bathroom “just in case”. Apparently his family has a history of late-onset asthma, great, just another thing to watch out for. He’s dying, though, Brian knows it. His complaints about his back get louder and are more often than not accompanied by literally no movement because they’re both on the couch watching _Godzilla_ again because that’s what they always do. 

Patrick says he’s overreacting. Patrick, though, isn’t married to a human, he’s married to a lovely selkie who ages just a bit slower than a human and thus is not dying at age forty. Laura also says he’s overreacting, but she says he overreacts about everything and thus is not valid. 

Jonah, though. Jonah _gets him_. 

(“Oh, yeah, definitely dying,” Jonah says, barely sparing a glance towards him, completely focused on the newspaper. “He’s fucked.”

“Exactly!” Brian cries. He flops onto Jonah’s lap and graciously accepts the hair petting he gets in response, because Jonah is a saint. “What am I supposed to do?”

“You should tell him, probably. He’s kind of an idiot.”

Brian sighs, fondly, “Yeah.”

“He probably doesn’t even know he’s dying. Humans are kind of bad about that.”)

So Brian waits until a day that they’re both going to be at home and there’s no stream and Brian doesn’t need to go back to his tree to refuel.

“What’s up?” Pat asks approximately ten minutes into their mandatory cuddle session, probably sensing how upset Brian is based off the tears on the verge of slipping out and the way Brian’s been staring at him this whole time.

“You’re dying!” Brian wails, and he buries his face into Pat’s shoulder with another wail and a stifled sob. 

Pat’s immediately rubbing his back and fussing over him like he’s done this before, which maybe he has, those New York People sure seemed like they’d break down into a fit of tears at any moment. Brian leans into the touch as much as he can while being a whole entire mess.

“Hey, what?” Pat asks. He- is that laughter? Is he _laughing_? “What’s up? Do you know something I don’t?”

Brian pokes his head up and hopes he looks pathetic enough for Pat to take him seriously. Pat, of course, takes nothing seriously ever, but he at least lets his cute little half-smile drop.

“You’re turning grey,” Brian whimpers. And then he’s back to being a mess with his face turned away and Pat’s back to trying to confusedly console him. “And- and you’re so _young_! God, Patrick!”

“I’m not- I’m not dying, Brian, my hair’s just fucked up. Are you okay?”

“Does it look like I’m okay, Pat G!ll?”

“Okay, yeah, my bad. But you don’t need to worry about me dying for a long time, okay? I’ve got another couple decades left in me.”

“That still isn’t enough time.” And Brian chances looking at him again, and he sighs at how Pat looks completely calm about this whole situation. “You’re- you’re human. You’ll be dead before I look your age.”

Pat hums, probably remembering the big long and threatening Dryad 101 session Laura gave him a couple months after their first actual date. “Right.“

“And then I’ll have to stay in my tree and never see anyone again and I’ll cry forever because you’ll be _gone_ and-”

“Brian, deep breaths, baby boy, okay?”

Brian whines a bit, but does as he’s told. Pat shifts the two of them so they’re sitting up, Brian on his lap because that’s just how they naturally sit when together. It’s cute, usually, and it lets Brian comfortably hide his face without having to pin Pat’s limbs down in very uncomfortable positions.

“Now listen to me,” Pat continues, voice softer than before. More tender, absolutely kinder and more serious. Brian can almost picture him with his Serious Face on, even though he himself has only seen it once or twice over the past nine years. “I’m not going anywhere anytime soon. My dad’s, like, ninety and still going strong, and I remember my grandma living ‘til she was almost a hundred fifty. It’s the magic, maybe. So I’m gonna stick around until you won’t have me anymore, and then some because I’m sure there’s a spell somewhere that’ll let me come back as a ghost, then I’ll haunt your tree until you’re sick of me. I know this- _death_ is scary, but also, Brian, I’m only forty. I have at least another half of my life left, and you’re gonna be right there through it.”

Brian sniffles. “You’d better haunt me. Or I’ll die.”

He can feel Pat’s gentle laughter more than hear it, and he could almost be angry about it. Almost. 

“Besides,” Pat says, and, okay, there’s the usual teasing again, usually imperceptive to those who haven’t lived with him for seven fucking years. “I look handsome like this, don’t I? It’s giving me a real mature look. Real rugged.”

“You’re the opposite of rugged,” Brian says. “You’re a smooth boy, my dear.”

“Look who’s talking.”

And Brian pulls his face back to stick his tongue out at him, and Pat just winks and goes on about how Brian’s mustache was probably stenciled on by a very patient Jonah, and Brian proves him wrong by rubbing his mustache all over Pat’s face, and Pat laughs and fully dimples and almost immediately has him in some wrestling pin Brian can’t be bothered to remember the name of. 

They stay at the tree that night, Brian lining Pat’s nest with moss to make it softer for his old man bird bones, and Pat just rolls his eyes and caws an _“I love you”_ and only pecks his bark once before tucking his head under his wing, and Brian smiles.

**Author's Note:**

> Go check out Segs if you somehow haven't already, and then my tumblr is [asorrywrite](https://asorrywrite.tumblr.com/) if you want to watch me scream over my current long wip. (there was a sadder version of this i might write up sometime, and that'll go there)


End file.
